Warbird Information Exchange

No, they are Navigators



WSOs get training up to (but not including) solo in the T-6 or T-34, so they have basic stick and rudder skills. They don't get any landing practice, though, so that would be the limiting factor. In fact, they don't get a whole lot of stick time in general. I would hope that in the even I were incapacitated my 'pitter would try to land to the best of his ability. If not, that's why there's an ejection seat.



Yes, they can compete to go to pilot training. It is highly competitive and only about a half dozen get to do it every year.



Wish I could but I can't.

The Demo Team is at Seymour, and I'm not stationed there. When I WAS at Seymour, there was no such thing as an F-15E demo team.

Just bad timing.

Thanks Randy!

Randy, I know that time was probably more of a factor with you taking the ground spare without tanks, but how long (on average) does it take to upload tanks onto an aircraft during "non-combat" operations?

Sorry that you didn't get to pass your lead check. How often are you allowed to retake the checkride or have you already attempted it again?

I'm not exactly sure. If the maintenance folks stopped whatever else they were doing I would guess that for a one-off upload it would probably take 30 minutes.

The real pain is that the tech order requires pressure checks and such before flying...definitely not something that would be possible in this instance.



Well, you can re-try it as many times as the leadership allows! All of these positions (flight lead, instructor, etc) are all "at the desire" of the Squadron Commander and Operations Officer. They select whom they want to be in those positions and oversee the training to get them there.

While rare, there certainly are some who start the upgrade training process but perform poorly and do not complete it.

As for me, the limitation was scheduling -- I had to wait for the next time there were 8 jets available on the schedule at one time (4 for my flight, 4 for the bad guys). That happened the very next week, and I was successful.

Good to hear that you were able to redo it again and pass.

As for the tanks, I definitely understand the need for the pressure checks and such. I knew it wouldn't be a simple "slap it on and fuel it up" deal, just didn't know how involved the post-upload checks were for the fuel tanks as I've seen the Russian tank attachments and while simple, they aren't exactly something that I would call "plug and play" and I can't imagine that the US tanks would be any different.